It is much easier to set up your bluetooth headset today, with bluez >= 3.16. You may wanna try the out-of-box python script in [http://fosswire.com/2008/01/11/a2dp-stereo-linux/ this blog] (you need edit the script to work with gconftool-2). There's also a piece of equivalent bash script [http://lymanrb.blogspot.com/2008/05/linux.html here].

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It is much easier to set up your bluetooth headset today, with bluez >= 3.16. You may want to try the out-of-box python script in [http://fosswire.com/2008/01/11/a2dp-stereo-linux/ this blog] (you need edit the script to work with gconftool-2). There's also a piece of equivalent bash script [http://lymanrb.blogspot.com/2008/05/linux.html here].

The following method is '''out-of-date''' and '''obsoleted'''.

The following method is '''out-of-date''' and '''obsoleted'''.

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'''NOTE: This method is also outdated as with newer versions of BlueZ.'''

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'''NOTE: This method is also outdated as with newer versions of BlueZ. Anyone know what the exact version number when this stopped working is?'''

You need your headset's bdaddr. It is of the form ''12:34:56:78:9A:BC''. Either find it in the documentation of your headset, on the headset itself or with the '''hcitool scan''' command.

You need your headset's bdaddr. It is of the form ''12:34:56:78:9A:BC''. Either find it in the documentation of your headset, on the headset itself or with the '''hcitool scan''' command.

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== Tested Headsets ==

== Tested Headsets ==

The following Bluetooth headsets have been tested with Arch Linux

The following Bluetooth headsets have been tested with Arch Linux

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* Philips SHB9100 - Confirmed NOT TO WORK well. Have tried ''everything'' after a while they cut out. Pause and resume too is flakky and basically the whole wireless bluetooth experience is horrible.

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* Philips SHB9100 - Confirmed NOT TO WORK well. Have tried ''everything'' after a while they cut out. Pause and resume too is flakky and basically the whole wireless bluetooth experience is horrible. The following forum post[https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?pid=1315428#p1315428] explains an underlying issue and describes a temporary solution which can be used to improve the audio quality pending a proper fix.

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* Parrot Zik - Confirmed to work brilliantly out of the box with firmware 1.04! No issues.

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* Parrot Zik - Confirmed to work out of the box with firmware 1.04! The MIC however is detected, but does not work at all. Sometimes it can lag behind (not stutter) but most of the times it is not noticeable unless you playing a game, in which case I would switch to wired which resolves the issue.

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* Sony DR-BT50 works for a2dp both with bluez4 and bluez5 (instructions here[http://vlsd.blogspot.com/2013/11/bluetooth-headphones-and-arch-linux.html], subject to change)

ALSA-BTSCO method

It is much easier to set up your bluetooth headset today, with bluez >= 3.16. You may want to try the out-of-box python script in this blog (you need edit the script to work with gconftool-2). There's also a piece of equivalent bash script here.

The following method is out-of-date and obsoleted.

NOTE: This method is also outdated as with newer versions of BlueZ. Anyone know what the exact version number when this stopped working is?

You need your headset's bdaddr. It is of the form 12:34:56:78:9A:BC. Either find it in the documentation of your headset, on the headset itself or with the hcitool scan command.

There will now be an extra audio device. Use alsamixer -cN (where N is most likely 1) to set the volume. You can access the device with any alsa-capable application by choosing the device BT headset, or with any OSS application by using /dev/dspN as the audio device.

But to actually get any sound, you have to connect your headset to the computer first.

Connecting the headset

If you connect your headset for the first time, read the section about pairing first. To connect to your headset to the computer, use the command

$ btsco -f <bdaddr>

for example

$ btsco -f 12:34:56:78:9A:BC

Pairing the headset with your computer

The first time you connect the headset, you have to pair it with the computer. To do this, you need your headset's PIN. Depending on your headset you may have to reset the headset and repeat the pairing everytime you used the headset with another bluetooth device.

There are two ways to pair your headset with the computer:

Using bluez-gnome

Install the bluez-gnome package from the community repository. Then start the bt-applet program. Once you try to connect to the headset, a window will open and ask for the PIN.

Using passkey-agent

Before connecting to the headset, enter the command

$ passkey-agent --default <pin>

where <pin> is your headset's PIN. Then try to connect to the headset.

Headset's multimedia buttons

In order to get your bluetooth headset's multimedia buttons (play, pause, next, previous) working you need to create /etc/modprobe.d/uinput.conf containing uinput.

PulseAudio method

This one`s much easier and more elegant. PulseAudio will seamlessly switch between output devices when the headset is turned on. If you have ALSA as the sound server, you need the following packages installed:
pulseaudio and pulseaudio-alsa.

Now, to configure the audio output to use bluetooth, just install pavucontrol and run it to configure the audio output:

$ pavucontrol

See [this blog] for futher explanations. Make sure to take a look at the PulseAudio wiki entry for setting up PulseAudio, especially if you are running KDE.

Troubleshooting

Audio sink fails

Bluetooth headset is connected, but ALSA/PulseAudio fails to pick up the connected device. You'll get "Audio sink fails".
According to gentoo wiki, you have to verify than in /etc/bluetooth/audio.conf there is Enable=Socket under the [General] section heading.

Just do a # systemctl restart bluetooth to apply it.

Page timeout issue

If you receive this error whilst trying to pair your headset with your system using bluez-simple-agent, then you can try to restart your system and use the graphical bluez applet of your desktop environment.

Switch between HSV and A2DP setting

This can easily be achieved by the following command where 2 needs to be changed with the correct device number.

pacmd set-card-profile 2 a2dp

A2DP not working with pulseaudio

If pulseaudio fails when changing the profile to A2DP with bluez 4.1+ and pulseaudio 3.0+, you can try disabling the Socket interface from /etc/bluetooth/audio.conf by removing the line Enable=Socket and adding line Disable=Socket

Disable=Socket

Tested Headsets

The following Bluetooth headsets have been tested with Arch Linux

Philips SHB9100 - Confirmed NOT TO WORK well. Have tried everything after a while they cut out. Pause and resume too is flakky and basically the whole wireless bluetooth experience is horrible. The following forum post[1] explains an underlying issue and describes a temporary solution which can be used to improve the audio quality pending a proper fix.

Parrot Zik - Confirmed to work out of the box with firmware 1.04! The MIC however is detected, but does not work at all. Sometimes it can lag behind (not stutter) but most of the times it is not noticeable unless you playing a game, in which case I would switch to wired which resolves the issue.

Sony DR-BT50 works for a2dp both with bluez4 and bluez5 (instructions here[2], subject to change)